You're Really a Part of Me
by LegendaryStarCat
Summary: Kitty Pryde has a Peter under her skin...but which one? (Play on soulmate/soulmark concept; more influenced by "realistic" soulmark prompts.) (Kitty Pryde & Piotr Rasputin/Pete Wisdom/Peter Quill)


Not everyone was born with one; sometimes, in grade school, people would claim a constellation of freckles on their arms or an old bike riding scar on their knee was actually the beginnings of a name forming on their skin. Their soulmate's name.

By the time she was twelve, Kitty knew the brown splotches across her hip were no birthmark or accident. She could read it then, faintly, in a plain, if messy, handwritten font: 'Peter.' That was it. Gossip rags and less reputable women's magazines claimed that some people had full soulmarks, middle and last names, even, and that it signified their love was more meaningful and deeper. It sounded like bullshit to her, though.

Kitty wasn't naïve about the mark; when her parents divorced she learned that once upon a time, her father had 'Teresa' on the back of his leg, and her mother had 'Carmen' underneath her arm, but their marks faded as they became less made for each other. By the time she had gone to Japan with Wolverine to save her father, his mark had disappeared completely.

It happened. Life was unpredictable, and even what was 'fated' was never really fated forever.

But still, the name on her hip drove her crazy. When she first discovered her powers, she wanted to phase it off of her skin. 'Peter,' so vague. Too many boys with that name for her to be romantic about it.

But then she met Piotr, and she thought, 'maybe it's fate.' They were both mutants, and he was so tall and so handsome and so strong.

And for years it didn't work. For years she never even knew if Piotr had a mark.

When she and Piotr first had sex, only a few short weeks before she disappeared in to space for what they both though was forever, she cried, because she saw the name 'Katya' faintly scripted in the tuck between his inner thigh and his crotch. She cried because it was what he called her, but she also cried because it wasn't her real name. She had already accepted the fleeting nature of life, but the faded brown name on his skin struck her in that moment.

Piotr coddled her, worried he had hurt her in some way, but Kitty shook it off and loved him as she could for that brief moment. 'Maybe,' she thought. 'He doesn't even know the name is there.' But, when she was brought back from the bullet, and was mutely trapped in an intangible form, Piotr told her of the name, and of his fear, his realizations, that she was not the Katya on his skin. Pressing her hand against the machine that kept her from floating off, she nodded sadly.

But flying through space in a bullet had also made her realize the same. He was not the Peter, but he was a Peter. And maybe they were soulmates, for a time, however imperfect they were for one another.

* * *

Pete Wisdom had never let her see his mark. For a while, he said he didn't have one, and that destined love mumbojumbo was utter bullocks. Kitty found his blasé attitude charming: it made her relax. She forgot about worrying who was destined to love her and focused on enjoying the new world she was experiencing.

But the closer they got, the more often she noticed a band aid perpetually adhered to the bottom of his foot. She didn't press him about it, but doubted he was always roughing up the bottoms of his feet enough to warrant a bandage. Even now, she wasn't brave enough to ask him 'what name is on your foot?'

He would never tell her if it said 'Katherine' anyway.

* * *

Kitty was reticent when she met Peter Quill.

She had tried too many times with too many Peters. The mark still sat there, burnishing her hip with its heavy font. With her years it had only become darker, more strongly marked. There was a sense of worry for her, a ticking clock, some invisible imperative that she might never meet the Peter on her skin.

She pushed back a little, afraid to let him in. They never spoke of soulmates, but Peter's warm grin, his stupidly giving nature, made her want to touch him...want him to touch that mark, just to see if anything happened.

Separated by space, they grew closer. Kitty came to love Peter. She loved the charming and brave Peter, and she loved the fearful and secretive Peter. He felt whole to her, and she wanted to be whole next to him.

So when he was captured by Mister Knife's crew, Kitty charged into action without thought. Her fears and anxieties were overpowered in the moment, and all she thought of was Peter's safety.

And suddenly they were together. And Kitty was suddenly a shy girl, searching for the 'one.' And even in the moments where he made her feel so angry, such intense frustration, she still wanted him to hold her.

In that night, in the consummation of their relationship, as he held her, Kitty noticed, tucked away under his armpit, her own signature 'Katherine,' in sure, smooth block text, and she felt herself finally let out a breath that had been held for years.

She told Peter about it. He was quiet for a moment before he spoke.

"I didn't even know your full name was 'Katherine.'" He said with a goofy smile. And Kitty couldn't help but smile back.

* * *

Maybe one day in the future she would meet another Peter, maybe a scientist or a superhero, and maybe they would be destined to have their lives touch too, even for just a moment.

It was those sweet moments that made the mark actually mean something. It was those moments when destiny felt true.


End file.
